Cantata is a visual programming environment within the Khoros system. Cantata contains many features not typically found in visual programming environments such as visual hierarchy, iteration, control structures, expression-basedparameters and program encapsulation. This paper presents an overview of Cantata and these features. 1

and Pictorial Data Satoshi Matsuoka Shin Takahashi Tomihisa Kamada 3 Akinori Yonezawa y Department of Information Science, the University of Tokyo 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113 Japan Research and Development, ACCESS CO., LTD. 1-7-1 Sarugaku-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101 Japan Abstract The merits of direct manipulation are now widely recognized. However, direct manipulation interfaces incur high cost in their creation. To cope with this problem, we present a model of bi-directional translation between pictures and abstract application data, and a prototype system TRIP2 based on this model. Using this model, general mapping from abstract data to pictures, and from pictures to abstract data, is realized merely by giving declarative mapping rules, allowing fast and easy creation of direct manipulation interfaces. We apply the prototype system to the generation of the interfaces for kinship diagrams, Graph Editors, E-R diagrams, and an Othello game. Categories and Subject Descriptors:...

Hand drawn diagrams are essential tools for thinking and communicating in the early phases of design, yet computer based drawing tools support diagramming and sketching only poorly. Key components of computational support for early design include recognition, interpretation, and management of diagrams The paper describes the motivation for, implementation of, and initial experience with the "computer as cocktail napkin " project, a design environment based on diagrams. It explains low level recognition of glyphs, construction of higher-level recognizers, and routines for managing diagrams in the cocktail napkin prototype. 1.

This paper describes substantial advances in the analysis (parsing) of diagrams using constraint grammars. The addition of set types to the grammar and spatial indexing of the data make it possible to efficiently parse real diagrams of substantial complexity. The system is probably the first to demonstrate efficient diagram parsing using grammars that easily be retargeted to other domains. The work assumes that the diagrams are available as a ftat collection of graphics primitives: lines, polygons, circles, Bezier curves and text. This is appropriate for future electronic documents or for vectorized diagrams converted from scanned images. The classes of diagrams that we have analyzed include x,y data graphs and genetic diagrams drawn from the biological literature, as well as finite state automata diagrams (states and arcs). As an example, parsing a four-part data graph composed of 133 primitives required 35 sec using Macintosh Common Lisp on a Macintosh Quadra 700.

In order to implement graphical editors which allow both for structured and free editing, a parsing algorithm is needed which can analyze a diagram according to a graphical syntax, and derive the structure depicted. We propose to split this analysis in two phases. The first phase reads the picture objects as they were drawn, determines the spatial relations between them, and stores the whole in a graph. The second phase of the analysis searches this graph for patterns which form constructs of the language under consideration, and generates an abstract syntax graph of the depicted structure. We investigate whether graph grammars are a suitable formalism to define both graphs and to specify the translations between the two. The description of the translation would define the graphical syntax of L; graph rewriting according to this description would implement the corresponding graphical parser which performs the second phase of the analysis. 1 INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION Workstations wi...

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Diagram construction can be used to visually analyse and design a complex software system using natural, graphical representations describing high-level structure and semantics. Textual programming can specify detailed documentation and functionality not well expressed at a visual level. Integrating multiple textual and graphical views of software development allows programmers to utilise both representations as appropriate. Consistency management between these views must be automatically maintained by the development environment. MViews, a model for such software development environments, has been developed. MViews supports integrated textual and graphical views of software development with consistency management. MViews provides flexible program and view representation using a novel object dependency graph approach. Multiple views of a program may contain common information and are stored as graphs with textual or graphical renderings and editing. Change propagation between program components and views is supported using a novel update record mechanism. Different editing tools are integrated

In a graphical user interface, physical layout and abstract structure are two important aspects of a graph. This article proposes a new graph grammar formalism which integrates both the spatial and structural specification mechanisms in a single framework. This formalism is equipped with a parser that performs in polynomial time with an improved parsing complexity over its nonspatial predecessor, that is, the Reserved Graph Grammar. With the extended expressive power, the formalism is suitable for many user interface applications. The article presents its application in adaptive Web design and presentation.

Editing diagrams conveniently requires edit operations and automatic layout tailored to the type of diagram. This necessitates a syntax-directed editor for diagrams, called diagram editor herein. We describe the basics of a generator for interactive diagram editors that offers a number of significant advantages over previous approaches. The foundation is a new incremental algorithm for constraint evaluation. Constraints can be specified not only by equations, as in earlier work, but also by linear inequalities. This opens the door to integrating automatic diagram layout with user-defined modifications. Furthermore, the algorithm ensures that layout adjustments initiated by user action are confined to the smallest possible part of the diagram around the point of modification, thus realizing a principle of minimal change. 1 Introduction Diagrams are of fundamental importance to visual languages and, more generally, invaluable to everybody who wants to communicate complex information in ...

In this paper we introduce a constraint-based language that has a visual syntax, and allows for the declarative specification of the display of data. Other features of the proposed language include: (1) simplicity and genericity of the basic constructs; (2) ability to specify a variety of displays (graphs, bar charts, pie charts, etc.); (3) compatibility with the object-oriented framework of the database language doodle. We provide the syntax and the semantics of the language, and examples of applications that demonstrate the expressiveness of our language. 1.1 Introduction Mappings between the data domain and the visual domain are commonly used for extracting information from the data by reasoning in the visual domain [3, 12]. For example, Venn diagrams are visual representations of abstract sets and of their inclusion relationships. Other diagrams are close to the concrete entities that they represent, such as transportation and communication networks. Bar charts, pie charts, and p...